A Puzzling Dilemma

Going back to my first blog post I ever did for this class, I mentioned that I was particularly interested in the link between public policy and neuroscience. Economic games happened to be my favorite part of the intro public policy course I am so this module of our neuroscience course is particularly interesting to me as well. My favorite economic game is prisoner's dilemma, not only the outcome of both defections is particularly interesting and counter intuitive, but of how prevalent it is in politics, economics, and neuroscience. The most interesting example my public policy professor brought up was the application of this game to the fact that sometimes, contrary to the belief of people who believe that the the economy will naturally provide for the needs of society. The example was a multi-party prisoner's dilemma, in which one society had to decide whether to put in streetlights. You would think that everybody would want to chip in for lights, but it is actually in each individual's personal interest to not contribute and hope to freeride on others. Therefore, without government intervention, the lights would never be put in place. Prisoner's dilemma is not just a hypothetical theory that is rambled on about in textbooks, it has a place in everyday policymaking and political strategy.